Why do we let them fleece us?

23rd October 2012

This'll make your blood boil. It's enough to make me vote to get Britain out of Europe.

In a financing deal in 2010/11, the EU borrowed £136 billion. This was distributed in a way which means the UK got £10.7 billion. But, and here's what will get you angry , the way the deal works is that when calculating how the borrowing is paid back, the EU applies £11.4 billion to the UK, meaning we pay the capital and interest on an extra £700 million! And they plan to keep doing this unless we find a way to stop them!

It's a scandal, and many people will quite rightly be furious. But it's a lie - everything in the above paragraph is a lie. You can make it true though, simply by changing each mention of the UK to Scotland, and each mention of the EU to the UK.

So here's the correct paragraph.

In a financing deal in 2010/11, the UK borrowed £136 billion. This was distributed in a way which means Scotland got £10.7 billion. But, and here's what will get you angry , the way the deal works is that when calculating how the borrowing is paid back, the UK applies £11.4 billion to Scotland, meaning we pay the capital and interest on an extra £700 million! And they plan to keep doing this unless we find a way to stop them!

Still angry? If not, I'm guessing you're in the Eurosceptic half of the Conservative party, happy for Scotland to be fleeced but not the UK. As for the way to stop them, Alex Salmond and David Cameron arranged that for us last week - Just vote Yes.